How to use long-tail keywords in content – This is the next big question after how to find long-tail keywords using free tools in the minds of young bloggers.
We’ve already seen what are long-tail keywords, the different types of keywords, why should you target long-tail keywords, and how to find them. And so, here is the way you should use long-tail keywords to maximize your SEO and rank on search engines.
So, first, let’s see why should you use long-tail keywords in content.
Why should you use long-tail keywords in content?
If you are having a new blog or website, or even an old one, and not getting any traffic from search engines, here is the most important factor that’ll help you rank on search engines and increase your earning through Google AdSense – keywords.
Yep! Keywords are the most important thing you should keep in mind if you want to rank on search engines and gain more quality traffic.
Besides this, long-tail keywords have many other advantages like they are low competition keywords, they have higher conversion rates, etc. which we have already discussed in the previous post.
Higher conversion rates
For those, who don’t know what are conversion rates, it is the probability that a user lands onto your site and buys something through your affiliate link and long-tail keywords have higher conversion rates.
And all these advantages show that you have a higher chance of ranking on search engines and increasing your earning, whether through ads or affiliate marketing. This also answers your question – why use long-tail keywords for SEO.
Now, let’s move towards our main topic that is how to use long-tail keywords in content to maximize your SEO.
How to use long-tail keywords in content to maximize your SEO?
So, here comes our main topic that is how to use long-tail keywords in content to maximize your SEO. You should avoid using long-tail keywords or any other keywords unnecessarily as it sends a spammy signal to Google.
There are 6 best places where you can use long-tail keywords in content and get benefited the most out of all your competitors. So, let’s discuss all these 6 places 1 by 1.
The Title – First best place to use long-tail keywords in content
Yes! The title of your page which is also known as the title tag is the best place to use long tail keywords in your blog or website.
Using a long-tail keyword in your title tag not only helps you rank higher, but helps you increase your click-through rate i.e. percentage of clicks on your site from the search results.
The reason your click-through rate increases by using long-tail keywords in your title tag is that when people search a query on Google or any other search engine, and they find that your site has the same query in the title, they’ll definitely click on your site.
So, this gets you more traffic through search engines i.e. organic traffic. Also, try placing your long-tail keywords at the very beginning of your title tag.
This is because long-tail keywords generally consist of 3-4 words. And if you use 4-5 other words with it, your title becomes too long and crosses the ideal length of a title that is 6-7 words.
And that, is really not good for your site’s SEO.
Description – Second best place to use long-tail keywords in content
The second best place to use long-tail keywords in content is the description of your page or blog post.
The description of a page is also known as its meta description tag. For an example, take a look at the picture below.
Using your long-tail keyword in the meta description helps in SEO as search engines find the same keyword in the title as well as the meta description. This helps them to know what exactly you want to rank for.
If you’re using WordPress, follow below steps to add a meta description to your page:
- Open your WordPress dashboard
- Go to plugins > Add New
- Search for the ‘Yoast SEO’ plugin
- Install and activate it
- Now, open your post in edit mode
- Scroll down to the ending of the page
- Click on the Meta Description box and paste your meta description there
For Blogger users:
- Open your Blogger dashboard
- Open your post in edit mode
- Click on the ‘Search Description’ button on the right side
- Now write your meta description in the space given
URL – Third best place to use long-tail keywords in content
The third best place to use long-tail keywords in content is the URL of your post. It helps a lot in making an SEO-friendly URL as you include your long-tail keyword in the URL of your post.
And this makes it more easy for search engines to understand your post and it gets you ranked.
Unlike title and meta description, you have to structure your URL in the form – ‘yourblog.com/your-long-tail-keyword’. Try keeping the length of the URL between 70-75 characters for the best results.
To set up your URL on WordPress:
- Open your WordPress dashboard
- Install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin (If it’s not already installed)
- Open your post in edit mode
- Scroll down to the ending of the page
- Paste your URL in the ‘slug’ box
Remember not to include your domain name in the URL, that will be added on it’s own.
For Blogger users:
- Open your Blogger dashboard
- Open your post in edit mode
- Click on the ‘Permalink’ option in the right side
- Select ‘Custom Permalink’
- Paste your URL in the empty box
Remember not to include your domain name in the URL, that will be added on it’s own.
Headings and subheadings – Fourth best place to use long-tail keywords in content
The fourth best place to use long-tail keywords in content is the headings and subheadings of your post or page.
The first heading of your page is the Title tag. And as you know, you should use your long-tail keyword in the title tag, you should use long-tail keywords in more headings and subheadings also.
Let me explain you this with an example.
Let’s say you are writing an article on ‘What is SEO?’. Here, you can write some more things like what is SEO, types of SEO, benefits of SEO, etc.
Now, there are two types of SEO – on-page SEO and off-page SEO. So, your main title of the page becomes ‘What is SEO?’, subheading becomes ‘Types of SEO’, and sub-sub heading becomes ‘On-page SEO’, ‘Off-page SEO’.
Here’s a mind map for better understanding.
Putting long-tail keywords in headings and subheadings helps your SEO as you can’t stuff
keywords in your content. But using long-tail keywords in content is very important and this
is one of the best ways of using long-tail keywords in content.
It is not necessary to use long-tail keywords in headings and sub headings but it is
recommended as you can’t simply stuff keywords in your content, whether short tail or long-tail.
If putting your long-tail keywords in your headings and subheadings is not making any sense,
it’s simply keyword stuffing. And stuffing keywords in content will not do anything except
hurting your SEO.
Image Alt text – Fifth best place to use long-tail keywords in content
Yes! You would have never heard that image optimization is an important part of SEO.
Putting your long tail keywords in image alt texts can help you rank even higher as search
engines again find the same keywords in the image alt text also.
Now, you would have a question in your mind – why are we letting search engines find our main
keyword again and again?!
The answer is simple! We’re telling search engines – “Hey! I wanna rank for [your long-tail
keyword].
The proof is my article!:)”.
If you don’t if you don’t know what is image alt text, then here’s what it is. The alt text of image is the descriptive text of it. me explain this with an example.
Suppose you used image of a man using a laptop in your article. So, how does Google know what is the meaning of the image, what does the image show to the users?
The image alt text is used here. It gives the description of the image to Google. Let’s come back to the example.
How will you tell Google, “Hey! a man is using a laptop in this image”?
You will put ‘a man using a laptop’ in the alt text of the image.
But how do they get ranked and what is the benefit?
Firstly, they get ranked by the alt text. Secondly, the benefit is that they attract traffic.
Yes, if you images get ranked on Google, you get tons of traffic as Google gives a link of the page from where the images taken below the image.
So, if the visitor likes your image he /she may also visit your website or blog from the link below the image.
Here’s how to set up alt text in images.
For WordPress users:
- Open your WordPress dashboard.
- Open any post and upload your picture.
- Now, select the picture and click on the 3 dots.
- Click on ‘Show more settings’.
- A settings panel opens up on the right side.
- Scroll down and put your descriptive text i.e. alt text in the ‘Alt text’ box shown below.
For Blogger users:
- Open your Blogger dashboard.
- Open any post in compose mode (not in HTML edit mode).
- Upload any picture.
- Now click on the picture and click on the settings icon under the picture.
- An ‘Edit image’ box opens.
- Now paste your alt text in the space given and paste the same thing in the ‘Title text’ part too.
- Click ‘Update’ and you are good to go!
And with this last place to use long-tail keywords in content, we move towards the conslusion.
Conclusion
Here were the 6 best places to use long-tail keywords in content. If you use long-tail keywords in content, you’ll definitely see good results!
And using long-tail keywords is not a hard task but remember that you should not stuff keywords in content. This means that you should